Last nite

Multiple EVG readers mentioned seeing the ad Friday night and last night for the upcoming (surprise?) Strokes record being projected on the above building on Second Avenue at First Street. (H/T @GramPeder!) The projector was atop Avalon Bowery Place across East Houston.

As several music sites noted, the band posted a video clip featuring artwork for the new project apparently taken from a 1981 Jean-Michel Basquiat piece titled "Bird on Money"...

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Strokes (@thestrokes) on Feb 7, 2020 at 2:20pm PST

The band last released a studio album in 2013.

Week in Grieview

[Wednesday on St. Mark's Place via Derek Berg]

At the opening night of 'The Devil Probably: A Century of Satanic Panic' series at the Anthology Film Archives (Wednesday)

A visit to a poetry reading at Odessa (Tuesday)

King Kong lives: How a favorite stuffed animal from childhood became part of a community garden (Friday)

A Broadway-worthy marriage proposal where east meets west (Thursday)

Lawsuit filed to stop East River Park demolition (Friday)

Factory Tamal now open on 4th Street (Tuesday)

Ray returns! (Saturday)

Duane Reade by Walgreens closing on 10th Street and Third Avenue (Thursday)

North side L-train entrance opens at Avenue A on Feb. 10 (Tuesday)

Le Sia is back in action on 7th Street (Thursday)


[Eye watch at the Regal Union Square via Derek Berg]

Report: Target will replace the Food Emporium in Union Square — in 2023 (Thursday)

Cloud99 Vapes has closed on 2nd Avenue (Thursday)

First sign of the tech hub — aka Zero Irving — above ground on 14th Street (Monday)

Thai Direct is under renovation on Avenue A (Wednesday)

Live above the iconic Block Drugs (Monday)

Report: State says landlords must now pay broker fees, not tenants (Thursday)

You HAD your chance to buy the 7-Eleven retail space on the Bowery (Monday)

Doma Food and Drinks debuts on 1st Avenue (Wednesday)

Melt Shop closes on 4th Avenue (Tuesday)

The Whale Tea beaches itself on 14th Street (Wednesday)

Becky's Bites moves on 7th Street (Monday)

... and several readers have asked about this figure that has appeared around the neighborhood in recent weeks... no word on who the artist is...





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The Astor Place Kmart has your holidays covered!

If you're looking to knock off all your upcoming holiday shopping with one trip, then look no further than the Astor Place Kmart.

Aside from the expected Valentine's Day (this coming Friday!) gifts ...



Goggla reports that the St. Patrick's Day goods (no beer display!) ...



... and Easter (April 12) items are all ready...



We'll check back next month for the Thanksgiving display.

Ray returns!

Ray is out of hospital ... and back at Ray's Candy Store today at 113 Avenue A, Peter Brownscombe tells us.

As previously reported, Ray, who turned 87 last month, was hospitalized for emergency hernia surgery on Jan. 23.

Those who saw Ray today note that he is in very good spirits.

Local Knowledge Reading Series comes to the Parkside Lounge tomorrow (Sunday!)

Here's info about the latest reading via Local Knowledge, a biannual literary and art magazine.

Tomorrow (Sunday, Feb. 9!) afternoon at 2, the reading features Sanjay Agnihotri, Mike DeCapite and Greg Masters (a frequent EVG contributor) at the Parkside Lounge, 317 E. Houston St. at Attorney...

Daystarter (sun is back edition)

Sunrise shot from 10th and B today via Vinny & O...

'Prism' break

San Francisco's synth-pop group Cold Beat is back with a new LP (titled Mother) coming out on Feb. 28. The video here is for the record's second single, "Prism."

EVG etc.: Mokyo debuts on St. Mark's Place; The Strand expands to the UWS

[Seeing double on 7th via Derek Berg]

• Concerns mount over the hotel special permit plan below Union Square (amNewYork)

• Some of Steve Croman's tenants still have chronic issues with their apartments (Gothamist)

• Details on chef Kyungmin Kay Hyun’s new restaurant Mokyo on St. Mark's Place (Eater and Grub Street ... previously on EVG)

• The Strand is opening an outpost on the UWS (Westside Rag)

• Affordable housing lottery underway for this Essex Crossing building (The Lo-Down)

• More cities and states are saying no to cashless shops (NPR ... previously on EVG)

• NYCHA's 'RAD' plan (The City)

• Look ‘n Lick, a site-specific collaborative installation, continues at mh Project NYC, 140-142 Second Ave. — open Saturday and Sunday 2-6 p.m. (Official site)

• See "Casablanca" on Valentine's Day in the big auditorium at City Cinemas on Second Avenue and 12th Street Street (Official site)

• RIP Ivan Kral (Dangerous Minds) ... and Andy Gill (NPR)

• Patti Smith helps vandalized Portland, Ore. book shop (The Oregonian — h/t Daniel!)

Lawsuit filed to stop East River Park demolition

[Photo yesterday by Kate Horsfield via Instagram]

Opponents of the city's plan to demolish East River Park announced details of a lawsuit yesterday in hopes of stopping the project set to commence this year.

The Alienation of Parkland lawsuit was filed by Arthur Z. Schwartz of Advocates for Justice on behalf of East River Park Action, a grassroots neighborhood group, and 90 other plaintiffs.

Here's part of their statement via the EVG inbox:

The $1.45 billion flood control project will destroy the largest park south of Central Park starting in fall 2020. It will take at least three years (but likely much longer considering city’s history with park construction) to secure the neighborhood from storm surges.

Thousands of park users have demanded immediate interim flood protection and a revision of the plan to cause minimal destruction of the park.

The mayor and the New York City Council support the current East Side Coastal Resiliency Project despite vast neighborhood opposition.

“We have to sue to stop this plan. It’s clearly a violation of state law to destroy the park,” says Charles Krezell, who organized the legal efforts with East River Park Action.

Schwartz, a West 12th Street resident, previously filed lawsuits against the city's 14th Street Busway.

You can read more about Alienation of Parkland, the basis of the lawsuit, at this link.

This past Nov. 14, City Council signed off on the hotly contested flood-protection plan that will bury/elevate East River Park by eight feet as part of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project. The Department of Design and Construction has said that it plans to break ground on the Project later this spring.

Previously on EV Grieve:
• More details on the city's new plan to keep East River Park partially open during flood protection construction (Oct. 3)

• At the march and rally to save East River Park (Sept. 21)

• An annual reunion in East River Park (Aug. 4)

• A visit to East River Park (July 10)

King Kong lives: How a favorite stuffed animal from childhood became part of a community garden

The Sixth Street and Avenue B Community Garden has a new stuffed-animal resident — one with a long history in the East Village.

The stuffed King Kong belonged to Nefertiti Jones, who was born and raised on Sixth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C in the 1970s and 1980s. At age 4, her mother gave her the King Kong stuffed animal. She instantly fell in love with him.


[Image via Instagram]

She recently shared this story on an Instagram post (and with me)...

Kong slept on my bed all through my early childhood and teen years. We would first be parted when I moved to San Francisco in 1994 ... He was in good hands with his grandmother on East Fourth Street.

Upon returning to NYC and settling into my own place, I would move Kong back in with me. Of course, for the next 20 years, I found myself moving from the Upper West Side, to Williamsburg and finally back to East Fourth Street ... Kong was with me.

Last month, she made the difficult decision to part with him. He was falling apart. Jones asked her husband Jimi to dispose of Kong when she was away.

He did. But Jimi had become attached to Kong too, so rather than put him in the trash he put him on top of a recycling bin in the neighborhood hoping someone would take him home.

Last week, she was walking on the Sixth Street side of the Sixth Street and Avenue B Community Garden when she saw a familiar figure.

I nearly fell over when I saw Kong in a tree in the garden. My beloved Kong found his way back home and is now in the garden hanging in a tree.

Someone patched up his paws and placed a bunch of pussy willows in them.


[Image via Instagram]

"It has taken all of my will power not to take him back home with me," she said, "but I think he is happier in the garden."

Duane Reade by Walgreens closing on 10th Street and Third Avenue

Store closing signs are now up at the Duane Reade by Walgreens location on the southwest corner of Third Avenue and 10th Street. The last day for this location is March 2. (Thank you to Steven for the photos!)

Pharmacy customers are being transferred to the DR on 14th Street and Third Avenue.

In late 2015-early 2016, the drug store expanded into the two adjacent spaces along here, causing retail tenants Excel Art and Framing Store and East Village Cheese (which was never the same) to relocate.

This also marks the third Duane Reade by Walgreens to close nearby in the past few months. The outpost on Avenue D at Houston and First Avenue between 14th Street and 15th Street shuttered last November.

This block-long strip of shops has been under cover of a sidewalk bridge now for years (one estimate places it here toward the end of 2015)...



In May 2016, the FDNY responded to a threat of bricks falling from the facade at the building, officially 115 E. Ninth St.

Thursday's parting shot

The two formerly mysterious pink gumball machines (part of an album release promo for Fab Moretti's side project) were recently removed from Avenue A ... and as Goggla notes tonight, the remains of the machine at Seventh Street is now serving as an ashtray ...

A Broadway-worthy marriage proposal where east meets west

[Photo courtesy of Diana Catherall]

Diana Catherall grew up on Fourth Street in the East Village. Her boyfriend, Daniel Heydebrand, grew up on Fourth Street in the West Village. Their respective families still live on the street.

So this past Sunday, when Heydebrand proposed to Catherall, he decided to do it in a familiar location — on Broadway, in the crosswalk where East Fourth Street meets West Fourth Street.

"I loved the setting. It was perfect because it’s the halfway point to where we both grew up," Catherall told me. "It was very thoughtful and appropriate."

The proposal included the presence of their dogs and a moving truck owned by Heydebrand's family adorned with a colorful "Diana, will you marry me?" message. Heydebrand's cover story for that morning: They were going to have photos taken of their dogs, hence the presence of a photographer.

Given the time on Sunday morning, there was light traffic on this usually busy Broadway intersection. But it wasn't as if they had time to dawdle.

"Cars eventually honked for us to get out of the way," Catherall said. "But that’s New York ... I would expect nothing less."

Report: Target will replace the Food Emporium in Union Square — in 2023

[EVG photo from 2015]

ICYMI: Lois Weiss at the Post yesterday reported that Target is taking over the Food Emporium space at 10 Union Square East in the base of the Zeckendorf Towers. However, the takeover won't happen until 2023.

Per Weiss:

While Target has just signed a lease for 32,579 square feet at 10 Union Square East, the space is still occupied by the Food Emporium until the end of April in 2023.

Despite the wait, sources said Target wanted to lock in the location along East 14th Street. The nearly 16-year lease had an asking rent of $183 per square foot.

In December 2015, Key Food acquired the Food Emporium banner name and related intellectual property assets, per published reports.

This will mark the departure of yet another traditional grocery store in the area. Associated closed on 14th Street in Stuy Town in December, a location very close to the Target that opened in July 2018.